My San Francisco trip plus a ribbon GIVEAWAY! :)

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My husband and I took a wonderful trip to San Francisco a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to share with you some pictures I took there. It's really a lovely place and I highly recommend going if you're ever able to. We also did quite a bit of driving around including a Pacific coastal drive along the Big Sur. I also picked up some goodies there to share with you so be sure to check out the end of the post for the giveaway!

I took along my regular camera as well but these two pictures were taken with my iPhone. I really love my iPhone camera! Along the Big Sur, are a couple of famous bridges, including the Bixby Bridge, built in the early 1930s during the Great Depression (part of the New Deal I believe?).

The vistas were breathtaking...

Here's my hubby and me posing...

On our drive, we also stopped by the Santa Cruz pier and amusement park. It's very old, one of the first beachside amusement parks. I didn't get to ride on any rides this trip (not until the baby is born), but it was fun just to walk around and take it all in! It was surreal to see a roller coaster so close to the beach!

Beautiful California poppies. These were popping up everywhere. Being used to Florida which is quite monochromatic, California's landscape is very colorful and vibrant with beautiful flowers.

We also stopped by Alamo Square which had gorgeous views of San Francisco. And someone was flying a kite that day too! ;)

And this is what it feels like to be crossing underneath the Golden Gate bridge...I took this with my iPhone in the car looking up as we passed through. Really amazing feeling!

Here's a foggy vista of the Golden Gate bridge. The ship going underneath the bridge there is the same one that we took when we took a Bay Bridge cruise underneath the Golden Gate. It was sooo windy, but so worth it!

And here's a pregnant belly shot of me with San Francisco and the bay in the background. ;)

We also stopped by Boudin's bakery and restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf. They are famous for their yummy bread bowl soups, which I tried. They also have the neatest breads baked into all kinds of shapes and animals including a lobster, a turtle, a crab, a bear, a gator and more!

I'm a total bookworm so a stop by the City Lights bookstore was a must! Such a cool store filled with unique books. This is where the Beat poets got their start and published their works, and it was named a historic site in 2001. They still publish books today.

And this was the view from the top of Macy's in Union Square in downtown San Francisco. You must go to the top floor if you're ever there. Very pretty views!

One of the crafting stores I found in downtown Union Square was the amazing store Britex Fabrics.

It has four floors filled with fabrics, ribbons, buttons and any other kind of trim you could think of from all around the US and the world. It is truly heaven! It is a one of a kind store, only one location and it's been there since 1952. Some of the famous guests include fashion designer Diane von Forstenberg and other designers and celebrities.

Here are some pictures inside this amazing store.

They had a huge section with tons of new and vintage laces in many colors.

Here are the cream laces...so many in a row and very elegant!

Here is their third floor filled with ribbons as far as the eye can see! Every width and style of ribbon.

That wall behind the counter is covered in BUTTONS. A whole wall of buttons all arranged by color (love!). Sorry there are no close-up photos. They do not allow that in the store!

Here I am standing in front of their wonderful wall of trims. ;)

More of the color coordinated fabric...I so appreciate that because that's how I have everything arranged in my home!

One of the ribbons that caught my eye were the 100% silk hand dyed, hand cut ribbons. They are so beautiful and silky and would be wonderful tied on a card or on project or sewn into something special.

As a thank you to my blog readers, I bought a yard of several different colors of this pretty 100% silk ribbon to give away.

You must be a follower to enter (just click the follow link to the side if you're not yet a follower) and then just leave a comment below. That's all you have to do! I'll ship it anywhere in the world and I'll pick one winner by random.org generator next week.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Sorry about the delay in posting, I have many more crafting posts ready to go and can't wait to share them with you!

Do you Pinterest?

Lately, I've been having a lot of fun with Pinterest. It is such an amazing source of endless inspiration.

Just a little info: Pinterest is a site where you can bookmark your favorite photos. You bookmark the photo from anywhere on the internet, save it to your pin board, then later click on the photo and it will take you directly to the link where you found the photo. You can also bookmark other people's "pins" too. I've found quite a few wonderful tutorials this way and the inspiration is truly endless.

If you'd like to follow my pinboards, my Pinterest account is HERE. I'd love for you to follow my pins! :) Let me know if you'd like to share yours too or email me if you would like an invite to join. Here are some of my favorite links on Pinterest that I've pinned recently.

Love the colors of this nature scene...

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Books and flowers...love.

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Gorgeous fashion...

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I love pinning tutorials too. Like how to make your own jewelry using stamps and shrinky dink plastic. Cool!

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There are lots of fun products out there too! Such as this road tape. I want to try using this in the baby room (we're doing a transportation theme).

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So those are a few pins I've added lately. Thanks for letting me share. :) And sorry for the delay in posting the past month. It has been a very busy month. I'll show you what I have been up to tomorrow! :) There will also be a small giveaway too. Be sure to check back if you can!

Have a sunny day!!

Inspired by Vintage Cards

I've been hosting the Papertrey Pals blog this month! This month I posted a blog post about how I've been inspired lately by the lovely and vibrant vintage cards from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I collect them and love them!

Here's an example...

And another one...

You can check out the post I wrote about vintage cards HERE! Thanks for taking a peek and hope you enjoy! :)

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You...

Today's card is a card I made to encourage someone and to cheer them up. I heat embossed in gold a beautiful sentiment from the PTI stamp set, Everyday Blessings. It's my favorite scripture sentiment from that set, there's something very hopeful and encouraging about it. It says: "May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he smile upon you. Numbers 6:24-25"

The base is a gold shimmer paper, the same type of paper I used in yesterday's post. I usually don't use patterned paper on my cards and projects, but lately I've been using it quite a bit! I cropped it from a 12x12 Mariposa DCWV stack and matted it with Ocean Tides  cardstock.

Here's a closeup of the shimmer of the gold embossing, cardstock and butterfly (I added sparkles to the butterfly with a spica glitter pen).

Thanks for taking a look and I hope you have a sunny and great day!

Papertrey Pals May Card: Birthday Card for My Mom

I am hosting this month's Papertrey Pals May Challenge. The challenge is to make a card for your mom and to include some handcoloring on your project! Anyone may play along so feel free to join in! :)

My mom's birthday is one week after mother's day. I made her a birthday card using her favorite bird, the cardinal.

I stamped dogwoods to the front of the card with Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I diecut the front of the card with the sending you die, so you could see the cardinal inside the card. I tied Pure Poppy ribbon across the front and then I attached vellum to the back of the diecut opening.

Vellum can be a nice way to disguise your coloring if you want the look of hand coloring, but don't want to show all of the close up details (aka: hard lines, blending, etc.). It softens the coloring and helps to blend the colors!

And here's the inside of the card with the Cardinal colored in colored pencil. I originally colored him with chalks and loved the look, but it smeared slightly and I wasn't sure how to set it. I'm still happy with how it turned out!

The base of the card is a beautiful gold shimmer paper that I've been using a lot of lately. I will have another card tomorrow using more shimmer paper!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a sunshine-filled day!

New Challenge: Make a Card for Your Mom!

It's my turn to host a Papertrey Pals challenge! The challenge for May is to make a card for your mom and to include something hand colored in your project! :)

For all the details, please see the Papertrey Pals challenge blog. Everyone is free to join in and we would love for you to play along! :) You can link up any mother's card that you have already posted to your blog in May too!

Have a sunny day!

Card for My Grandma

So glad that Blogger is up and running again! I've missed seeing everyone's new posts and I'm glad I'm able to post now too. It looks like things may have been worked out, although my comments are still missing from my last post!

Today's card is a card I made for my Grandma for Mother's Day. She is one of the kindest, most gentle people I know and I'm so glad to have her influence in my life. Here's the card.

The patterned paper is from the DCWV 12x12 Botanicals stack, which I really love. The papers are so gorgeous! The pearls are by Zva Creative.

And here's the inside, stamped with the Wplus9 stamp set, A Special Lady, which is the same set I used in my mom's card from my last post.

A couple more things before I go! I've been taking a Wilton cake decorating class and thought I'd share with you some flowers I have made using royal icing. The flowers are roses, daffodils and violets. It's such a fun class and I recommend it if you've ever thought about getting into cake decorating!

Also, our pretty cat, Ashley, just recently turned 15 years old! Her favorite toys are mice, so we bought a whole bunch of toy mice to celebrate her birthday and now they're scattered all over our home. :) She's the sweetest cat, always following us around and jumping on the couch to cuddle with us. Love her! Happy birthday, Ashley!

Thanks for stopping by! I always love reading your comments. Have a great day and hope you are able to get some sunshine today!

A Special Card for a Special Lady

Today I thought I'd share with you the card I made for my mom for Mother's Day. I really worked hard on this card, I wanted it to be extra special for her this year! You will see why further down in the post! :) I never ever use patterned paper, but wanted to give it a try!  My mom loves flowers and the color fuchsia, so thought she would like the Raspberry Fizz paper, ribbon and patterned paper.

I rearranged the swirls of the pearls, so they would be swirling across the front of the card and forming a heart. The sentiments are from the Wplus9 set, A Special Lady. I really love the font and it's a beautiful stamp set! The patterned paper is from the DCWV Botanicals stack. It is the 12x12 stack trimmed down to fit a card. I think that I prefer the larger papers, so I have more options to trim it and crop it how I like!

And here is the inside...

I included a picture of my sonogram, showing that we are having a BOY! :) :) :) She was really surprised and happy to find out the gender!

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!! Have a beautiful and sunny day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!

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Wishing all mothers a truly wonderful Mother's Day today! Thanks for all that you do! :) As a mother-to-be, I'm looking forward to sharing this very special bond one day with my child.

Hope you have a wonderful and sunshine-filled Mother's Day!

Just a Note: More Mini Cards! :)

I sold a few things recently and I like to include a small note when I mail the package out! So I thought I'd share with you some mini notes I made using the PTI Lunchbox Note die (my favorite PTI die at the moment!). I love to make mini cards, I think it's my favorite kind of card. :)

The PTI Postmarks set is a wonderful set, full of so many great little images that you can mix and match! It also works really well with the Button Boutique set.

And the inside of the notecard...

I also decorated the back of the notes using the woman's silhouette stamp (from Postmarks) and the handmade stamp (from Button Boutique). It's a sort of way to "sign" the back of the notecard. :)

And one more thing! Some of the stamps in the PTI Postmarks set work great on the packages themselves. It's a way to decorate the package, but also make sure it arrives safe and sound! :)

Here are all of the notecards together!

And my apologies that I have not updated over the past month. We were having some work done in our home, so it was a little hard to find room to craft. I plan to do many more posts over the coming weeks. Thanks so much for stopping by! :) Have a sunny day!!

Gift Set for my Aunt

Awhile ago I posted a patterned paper calendar I made for my Aunt. The calendar is here. I realized that I never posted on my blog the rest of the set that I made for her. So I thought I would share it with you today. :) 

I made her a coordinating set of goodies for her to keep on her desk.

It included a PTI notebook and RSVP pen with matching paper.

A desk calendar...

And a set of magnets. 

Using a circle punch, I punched out some circles and attached them to epoxy circles. Then I glued these epoxy stickers to strong earth magnets. I needed a way to secure them, so I attached the mini magnets to a long magnet strip and glued that to a bookmark diecut. It kept everything in place so they didn't go sliding around.

Here's the whole set! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great sunny day! :)

ETA: I was emailed a few questions so thought I'd add some details about how I made some of this! The basic dimensions for the notebook and RSVP pen are on Kim's blog here. I bought the magnets from this ebay seller here and attached them with E-6000 glue. HTH!